JOIN USIndian tennis ace Sania Mirza and her Zimbabwean partner Cara Black squandered from position of strength to go down to World No 1 Italian combo of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci in a hard-fought women’s doubles quarterfinal match at the Australian Open here on Tuesday.
The sixth-seeded Indo-Zimbabwean combination lost 2-6, 6-3, 4-6.
Sania and Cara, who were leading 4-1 at one stage in the third and deciding set, simply wasted the opportunity to cause a major upset and lost to the higher-ranked opponents in an hour and 48 minutes contest.
The top seeds will take on the winner of the match between fourth seeds Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik and unseeded Jarmila Gajdosova and Ajla Tomljanovic in the semifinals.
Meanwhile, in the junior girls’ doubles the Indian combo of Snehadevi Reddy and Dhruthi Tatachar Venugopal lost to top seeds Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine and Russia’s Elizaveta Kulichkova 1-6, 2-6.